Editing Paul Helliwell (section)

==Cuba and Castle Bank & Trust== 
In 1960, Helliwell shifted to Miami, providing business cover for CIA operations against Cuba. As paymaster for the Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961), he channeled funds to Cuban exiles, working with operatives like [[E. Howard Hunt]] and David Atlee Phillips, per *The Wall Street Journal* (1977). In January 1962, he founded [[Castle Bank & Trust]] in the Bahamas, a CIA proprietary that laundered money for covert actions against Cuba (1964–1975), including Operation Mongoose, a plot to destabilize Fidel Castro. According to *False Profits* by Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin, Castle Bank facilitated tax-avoidance schemes for mobsters like Meyer Lansky, Asian politicians, and the Pritzker family (Hyatt hotels), later linked to BCCI’s Ghaith Pharaon.

Helliwell’s Miami law firm, Helliwell, Melrose & DeWolf, served as legal counsel to a Panamanian holding company controlling a Lansky-connected Bahamian casino, per *Barry and the Boys* by Daniel Hopsicker. He reportedly ran Red Sunset Enterprises, a CIA front recruiting frogmen and explosives experts for Mongoose, though this is unconfirmed by primary sources. Helliwell’s role in the 1960s purchase of the Disney World site in Orlando, using Castle Bank to obscure transactions, is noted.